The Altamont Enterprise - Lonnie Palmerhttp://www.altamontenterprise.com/tags/lonnie-palmer
enPublic should be heard, not herdedhttp://www.altamontenterprise.com/opinion/editorials/berne-knox-westerlo/10022014/public-should-be-heard-not-herded
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>It’s been nearly a year since the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board dismissed its popular boys’ basketball coach, Andy Wright. We have nothing but praise for the new coach who stepped up to lead a team that had many members who were passionately attached to Coach Wright and were hurt and confused by his departure.</p>
<p>We have this week gained some insight into how the decision was made. We received an inch-thick sheaf of papers, obtained by Wright through a Freedom Of Information Law request. The vast majority were emails exchanged among school board members and the then-interim superintendent, Lonnie Palmer. He’s since been replaced with another year-long interim superintendent.</p>
<p>The papers revealed, time and time again, that the elected representatives of the people — school board members —neither wanted to engage with nor inform the public; rather, the public was to be “managed,” and communicated with through the expertise of public-relations specialists. The papers also reveal that the district did not follow its own chain of command. And, sadly, the papers show a district that is unable or unwilling to work with and improve its staff.</p>
<p>Last Oct. 9, Palmer wrote the school board members that he had told Wright he would not be sending his name to the board for the annual re-appointment; Wright had coached varsity for a decade. Palmer reports that Wright asked “the exact reasons for this decision. I told him it was time for a change.”</p>
<p>This is the same reason the public was given, which is no reason at all.</p>
<p>“I reminded him that he was a young man with much of his career ahead of him and he should be careful not to do or say anything that might cause him long term career damage,” wrote Palmer. The threat to keep him quiet did not work.</p>
<p>Crowds packed the school’s auditorium, asking for reasons; people wrote to our paper in published letters to the editor, and they e-mailed the board. In response, they got the same boilerplate response from the board’s president, Joan Adriance: “Thank you for your email to the BKW Board of Education. We appreciate you contacting us to share your thoughts and concerns, however, we are unable to respond or comment on personnel matters.”</p>
<p>That line was given to board members in Palmer’s Oct. 9 email. He wrote, “Engaging in back in forth will convince the unbiased observers that we are uncertain of our position and feel the need to explain it.” (On the contrary, back-and-forth discussion is what informs wise board decisions. Last month, for example, the Guilderland school board listened to citizens opposed to closing an elementary school and decided to reject a consultant’s scenarios while seeking a solution to falling enrollment and excess building space.)</p>
<p>Palmer concluded, “Please help me to the quickest and most professional resolution of this issue by smiling and saying you can’t discuss personnel issues.”</p>
<p>As we’ve written in this space many times, most recently last Nov. 14, nowhere does state law name “personnel” as a topic to be avoided in public. Robert Freeman, director of the New York State Committee on Open Government, calls it the “Personnel Myth,” adding that, if people repeat things enough times, they come to believe them. “The law says a board may enter into executive session. The board is absolutely free to discuss the issue in public,” Freeman told us.</p>
<p>We wrote that editorial after publishing a letter from Palmer on Oct. 31 that stated, “In accordance with the New York Personal Privacy Protection Law, the board has a longstanding practice of not discussing personnel matters in public.” That law did not apply to Wright’s situation; it applies only to state agencies and records maintained by state agencies.</p>
<p>We were stonewalled for months by school leaders as we tried to get answers, to understand the situation so we could explain it to the community. The emails contain references on how to handle one of our reporters.</p>
<p>Giving a reason, which Wright repeatedly begged for, would have spared the players ostracized by teammates who thought they had complained about Wright. “I’m asking you as a school administrator,” the mother of a targeted player wrote the high school principal, Brian Corey, on Oct. 21, “please tell Mr. Wright the reasons for this change....” to quell rumors it is because of players’ complaints.</p>
<p>One school board member, Vasilios Lefkaditis, argued that giving the coach the reason was the right thing to do. “I understand that we don’t ‘have to’ give him a reason but I don’t operate that way and I think if the board does it’s in poor taste,” he wrote. “A man deserves to know why his services are no longer being utilized.”</p>
<p>The stack of papers revealed no outright reason. We had already printed a two-year-old plan, listing points Wright was asked to improve. He was told he had met the mark. His coach performance reports with 36 listed characteristics, to be evaluated on a scale of 1 (for excellent) to 5 (for poor), were almost all 1s. There were a couple of 2s, for promptness and appearance, and one 3 over the years for relationships with opposing teams/officials.</p>
<p>One reason is hinted at in an Oct. 8 email from Lefkaditis who says of dismissing Wright, “This decision fits right in with Lonnie’s plan to change the culture of the district. BKW needs to be shaken up and revitalized.” Lefkaditis goes on about the district’s declining enrollment, “we’re in a free fall....”</p>
<p>While we appreciate Palmer’s leadership at budget time, in settling the employees’ long overdue contract, and in securing more academic services, we’ve long admired the culture of BKW, a close-knit school community where genuine caring helps students progress. We covered a report done by Cornell a decade ago that showed school enrollment would decline rapidly; the reasons, though, didn’t have to do with “culture” but with changing demographics — smaller families, fewer people farming.</p>
<p>Firing a coach is not a good way to revitalize.</p>
<p>The papers also make reference to four anonymous respondents to a survey on extracurricular activities who “were very critical of Andy Wright, labeling him as disrespectful, demeaning and arrogant,” Palmer reported to the board on Oct. 8. “They also criticized his excessive playing time for certain athletes and too much emphasis for the scoring record of one player.” Palmer said the survey had 25 to 30 respondents.</p>
<p>Those comments echo complaints that Adriance had written about Wright in a three-page letter to the former superintendent, with a handwritten note on top to “Lonnie,” saying, “I think it’s time for a change.” Adriance wrote she was “frustrated and concerned about Coach Wright’s behavior and coaching strategy...many comments have been made about this season not being about competing to win games, but instead about Garrett Pitcher scoring 1000 career points so that his name would join his grandfather’s on the banner in the gym.” She also asserts, “We lost closely contested games because the focus has been on Garrett reaching his personal goal.”</p>
<p>She wrote, too, that, because of Wright’s behavior, the BKW basketball program “is often the laughing stock of our community and our conference. That is shameful.” She described his behavior, saying, “I have watched him argue, pout and demean players when they come out of the game.” She also asserts, “His favoritism is no secret to anyone watching. Finally, she maintains that parents of players “are afraid to speak up because they fear retribution from him toward their children.”</p>
<p>Where is the chain of command here? Aren’t educators — and yes, coaches are important educators — supposed to be supervised by administrators, in this case an athletic director and high school principal? If parents have complaints, shouldn’t they be handled and answered at that level? Why would one person’s opinions carry such clout?</p>
<p>The athletic director at the time, Thomas Galvin, resigned in the wake of Wright’s dismissal. An email he sent to the school board members on Oct. 22 after the huge public outcry in favor of keeping Wright, says, “As I said tonight, I am a ‘solution guy.’ I would hope you will take my advice and give Andy a one year trial as coach. Allow Mr. Palmer, Mr. Corey and Mr. Kies [a dean at the time] to observe and evaluate him as a coach. If they do not feel Andy has done an adequate job, then we will support their decisions.”</p>
<p>That was a last-ditch effort to right a system that was terribly out of kilter, where a school board member was calling the shots rather than letting the school professionals do their jobs.</p>
<p>Palmer, in his Oct. 9 email telling the board Wright was losing his coaching job, wrote, “I feel bad because Andy is a likeable young man who could have been successful as a coach with the right leadership, which he didn’t get early in his career.</p>
<p>Punishing a peon for a system that doesn’t allow for improvement of staff is no way to solve the problem.</p>
<p>Lefkaditis wrote on Oct. 31, “As for standing strong, I’m still not sure what all this was for because I don’t know if it’s sustainable.” He wrote it could be “a big black eye for nothing,” urging, “Without systemic policies/procedures and sustainability the district will slip right back into the groove.”</p>
<p>The district would be wise to openly look at what went wrong — involving the public in the discussion — if it wants to move forward. Continuing to stonewall or pretending it didn’t happen won’t solve the problems.</p>
<p>Adriance, wrote admiringly of a girls’ soccer coach who lost her job because of “personal politics” but “accepted, with grace and silence, what had happened, even though she and many others felt that she was treated unjustly.” Adriance goes on, telling her fellow board members, “In fact, her silence was so absolute that some of you may not even know that it happened.”</p>
<p>Accepting a wrong silently is not a virtue. To rout out “personal politics,” they must first be exposed.</p>
<p>Palmer wrote to the board on Oct. 28, after a crowd turned out in support of Wright, the “mob mentality” was indicative of Wright’s response in fighting for his job. Palmer wrote, “he loses perspective on what is the best thing for the kids, for the district and even for himself...Keeping your cool and thinking rationally under pressure is a big part of being a successful coach.”</p>
<p>We believe Wright was, and still is, a successful coach. Could he have been better with some tutoring? Sure; we all can improve.</p>
<p>But was he wrong to seek a reason for his dismissal? No. The district was wrong for not being open.</p>
<p>And, in the end, what is the best lesson for kids? To quietly leave as if nothing had happened? Or to fight for an explanation and maybe improve the system along the way?</p>
<p>— Melissa Hale-Spencer</p>
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</div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">October 2, 2014</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/andy-wright" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Andy Wright</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/joan-adriance" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Joan Adriance</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-2" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/lonnie-palmer" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lonnie Palmer</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Thu, 02 Oct 2014 23:11:37 +0000admin4159 at http://www.altamontenterprise.comBKW teachers get 10-year pact, 5.5% in raises overallhttp://www.altamontenterprise.com/news/hilltowns/04242014/bkw-teachers-get-10-year-pact-55-raises-overall
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/marcello-iaia" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Marcello Iaia</a></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-images clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-images/2034" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/DSC09004.JPG?itok=rHmZLZIt" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/DSC09004.JPG?itok=5XGeF5yA" width="300" height="290" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia</p>
<p><strong>Big decisions:</strong> Vasilios Lefkaditis, vice president of the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board, and board member Earl Barcomb argue during the April 21 meeting where the budget proposal and an agreement with the teachers’ union were adopted. Lefkaditis voted against the budget, with the four other board members in favor, and he abstained from the vote on a memorandum of agreement for the contract, citing a lack of information.</p>
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/DSC09003.JPG?itok=lHZCyOqN" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/DSC09003.JPG?itok=Vzs0DUtC" width="300" height="288" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia</p>
<p><strong>Conflicting projections:</strong> Interim Superintendent Lonnie Palmer looks over a breakdown of the school’s budgeting figures at the April 21 board meeting where the board adopted a $21.9 million budget.</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>BERNE — A divided school board adopted an agreement with the Berne-Knox-Westerlo Teachers’ Association on Monday, five years after its last contract expired.</p>
<p>The memorandum of agreement includes a one-time payment from the district’s fund balance of $180,000 to be divided among 80-some current teachers, for the years of an expired contract, as an incentive to settle. It also includes a 5.5-percent total increase to future salaries until 2018-19.</p>
<p>Interim Superintendent Lonnie Palmer said the agreement is projected to be a net savings for the district, largely because of reductions in health-insurance costs that will save the district about $17,000 more than the extra cost of the salaries. It explicitly calls for an end to the previous practice of calculating premium contributions, known as “nesting,” which inflated the district’s share.</p>
<p>The April 21 board meeting was long and contentious, as it was when an agreement with the BKW Teacher Support Staff was passed in January. The votes both times were the same, with three votes in favor — President Joan Adriance, Chasity McGivern, and Earl Barcomb — and two abstentions, from Vasilios Lefkaditis and Gerald Larghe. For both agreements, Lefkaditis, the board’s vice president, suggested the numbers used to reflect costs and savings were different from his own projections and asked other board members to postpone their decision — a motion that was voted down on Monday by the same three members who passed the agreement.</p>
<p>“I have never ever encountered a board member who thought it was their role to take the data that the business office provides, and go through it line-by-line and say, ‘This is wrong,…” said Palmer, adding that the projections for the financial impact of the agreement made by Interim Business Official Mark Kellett were accurate.</p>
<p>Palmer said Lefkaditis’s actions undermined administrators’ credibility. “It’s part of reason that it’s difficult for this district to get another superintendent to come here,” he said.</p>
<p> “You’ll be gone when we find out you were wrong,” Lefkaditis told Palmer before the vote to postpone the agreement failed. Palmer’s one-year contract will be over this summer. Adriance said after the meeting that the board will interview for another one-year interim superintendent.</p>
<p>Lefkaditis, who is running for a second three-year term starting in July, cited a lack of information in his abstention on Monday. Larghe said he abstained because the agreement did not include a method of rewarding teachers who perform well.</p>
<p>“We missed Gerry’s suggestion, and that was our error,” Palmer said of including in negotiations Larghe’s desire to reward good teachers. He said the district’s attorney, Jeffrey D. Honeywell, advised that the idea wouldn’t be received well by teachers, that it hasn’t worked well in other districts.</p>
<p>The teachers’ union, affiliated with New York State United Teachers, will vote on the agreement on Thursday. It has more than 80 members and represents nurses, and guidance counselors, as well as teachers.</p>
<p>In 2007, the union’s contract with the district expired. It was extended with two one-year memorandums of agreement until 2009. The agreement adopted by the school board extends the teachers’ collective bargaining agreement from 2009 to 2019.</p>
<p>In addition to the agreement on their contract, teachers negotiated an agreement with the district for Annual Professional Performance Review, a state-required evaluation system that, Palmer said, resulted last year in several teachers being erroneously labeled as “ineffective.”</p>
<p>APPR is negotiated annually in each school district. At BKW, teachers’ scores leading to labels are based on state tests, observations, and local assessments. The 20 percent portion of each teacher’s score based on local assessments didn’t reflect some teachers’ performances last year, Palmer said, because tests were given that didn’t match the curricula very well.</p>
<h3><strong>Part of the plan</strong></h3>
<p>The teachers’ union is the district’s largest. The fourth and last bargaining agreement not settled is with the Civil Service Employees’ Association unit. Salaries and benefits that the collective bargaining agreements outline account for the lion’s share of the district’s $21.9 million budget, as is typical of school districts.</p>
<p>Palmer called the lump-sum payment and health-insurance savings his two “bargaining chips” in negotiations. He said being an interim superintendent made negotiations easier.</p>
<p>“The board and the teachers knew they had one year to get this settled,” said Palmer. The two bargaining sides had become frustrated and misinformed, he said. The board felt like teachers were asking for unreasonable provisions, but Palmer said that wasn’t accurate.</p>
<p>With the agreement, Palmer believes the morale among teachers and board members will improve and lead to better academic performance because the people instructing students are supported.</p>
<p>The agreement is a large piece of the plan adopted by Palmer and the school board majority; they have reduced non-teaching positions, freeing up money for instruction. Settling contracts was one of the top goals set by the board this year, after improving academic performance.</p>
<p>Palmer said his proposal for the negotiations was to get salaries close to the average for the area, and to smooth its step increases, so there are fewer teachers on plateaus. He compared BKW’s salaries and benefits to those of surrounding districts. His proposal was slightly higher than the average, and the agreed-upon salary schedule starts below the average, rises above in steps five through eight, then follows the average closely until dipping below in steps 19 through 26. The last few steps are well above the average.</p>
<p>Guilderland, a nearby suburban district, was among the districts used to determine the average pay for teachers in the area, which Lefkaditis criticized.</p>
<p>For comparison, Guilderland teachers’ salary schedule this year goes from $47,600 to $73,206 on step 23, the top step. Under the new BKW agreement, the salary schedule goes from $38,350 to $67,576 on step 23, but continues to $86,874 on step 30. In 2014-15 and onward, the BKW contract has just 29 steps.</p>
<h3><strong>10-year agreement</strong></h3>
<p>For the years 2013-14 to 2018-19, the new agreement raises salaries overall on top of yearly scheduled increases not at all the first year, 1 percent each of the following three years, and 1.25 percent each of the two years after. These do not include the one-time payment.</p>
<p>Palmer said the average settlement in the region is between 0.8 and 1.5 percent.</p>
<p>Under state labor relations law, the scheduled salary step increases in a contract continue when its term is expired.</p>
<p>With the new agreement, a teacher on the final and 29th step in 2014-15 would earn $87,569, and a new teacher the same year would earn $38,734, according to the new schedule for employees with bachelor of arts degrees. A teacher on the final step in the last year of the agreement would earn $90,405. A new teacher that year would start out at $40,506. Salaries can vary by the individual, based on levels of education and extra responsibilities in the district.</p>
<p>“The one-time payment is more than reasonable considering the new salary schedule only adds up to a 5.5 percent in total increase above what the teachers were legally entitled to receive in increment,” Palmer said in a prepared statement. “Meanwhile, inflation has risen 9 percent since 2009 and will only go higher between now and 2019.”</p>
<p>Instead of a retroactive salary schedule, the $180,000 lump-sum payment is to be divided equally and pro-rated among the union’s more than 80 teachers who worked under the expired contract. The memorandum leaves the method of payment open to other arrangements.</p>
<p>From July 2014, the district will be responsible for a less costly health-insurance plan, according to the new memorandum. Union members can have more expensive plans, but they have to pay the difference between those plans and the base Empire PPO (Preferred Provider Organization) plan.</p>
<p>Employee contributions for health-insurance premiums are also changed to save money for the district, with plans requiring increased contributions across the life of the agreement. For an individual plan, employees pay 5 percent the first year, and up to 13 percent the final year. For family and two-party plans, the numbers are 10 percent up to 17 percent.</p>
<p>Any new members after July this year will contribute 13 percent toward individual plans and 17 percent toward a dependent’s plan. New members will also contribute to health insurance when they retire at the same percentages they paid as an active employee at the time of retirement.</p>
<p>The premium contributions for future retirees change, as well, up to 6.5 percent for individual plans and up to 14 percent for family and two-party plans.</p>
<p>Drug co-pays will rise for teachers, with a financial incentive to use cheaper, generic drugs. They will pay $5 for generic drugs, $20 for preferred drugs, and $35 for non-preferred. A 90-day mail-order drug co-pay will cost two co-pays, depending on which type of drug is used.</p>
<p>The agreement refers to a future agreement to give members voluntary access to CANARx, which the district has the right to discontinue. After July 2016, the parties have the right to renegotiate the provisions for health, prescription, or dental insurance. The agreement calls for a health-insurance committee, starting next year and open to other unions, to monitor insurance benefits in the district.</p>
<p>A health-insurance buy-out is included in the agreement. If a member chooses coverage outside of the district, he or she can be paid $3,000 annually. Married employees are limited to one family plan, one two-person plan, or two individual plans, and they are eligible for buy-outs.</p>
<p>For a $4,000 annual stipend, teachers can voluntarily take on a sixth teaching assignment at the secondary school, starting this summer. Elementary-school teachers who are appointed as professional learning community leaders will receive an annual stipend of $952.</p>
<p>As an incentive to induce retirements — which saves the district money because new hires are typically paid less and will use the adjusted benefits — the agreement includes a temporary provision for members to retire with their benefits unchanged by the agreement, and it increases a $10,000 severance payment by $5,000.</p>
<p>Palmer said the district pays more than $138,000 for retirees’ insurance each month.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">April 24, 2014</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/lonnie-palmer" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lonnie Palmer</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/vasilios-lefkaditis" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Vasilios Lefkaditis</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-2" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/ppo" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">PPO</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-3" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/kelly-smith" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Kelly Smith</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Fri, 25 Apr 2014 00:44:40 +0000admin2781 at http://www.altamontenterprise.comSuper proposes no tax increase, boost instructionhttp://www.altamontenterprise.com/news/hilltowns/02272014/super-proposes-no-tax-increase-boost-instruction
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/marcello-iaia" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Marcello Iaia</a></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-images clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-images/1717" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/DSC07677.jpg?itok=QTTAVcx9" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/DSC07677.jpg?itok=ykQ7JMnE" width="300" height="199" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia</p>
<p><strong>Sharon Nasner,</strong> a grandmother of five special-needs children, speaks in support of hiring a job coach for a new career-readiness credential during Monday’s school board meeting at Berne-Knox-Westerlo. It was one among many possibilities laid out by Interim Superintendent Lonnie Palmer for the upcoming budget year and Nasner spoke hopefully of the difference the role could make, part of the Career Development and Occupational Studies Commencement Credential, new this year. </p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>BERNE — Berne-Knox-Westerlo Interim Superintendent Lonnie Palmer <a href="http://youtu.be/8n2IFGFPRNg">proposed on Monday</a> not to increase the 2014-15 tax levy. Last year’s $21.53 million spending plan, which also had no levy increase, passed by a landslide for the first time in years.</p>
<p>Palmer noted a contingency budget of the same amount could be adopted even if the public were to vote it down.</p>
<p>Palmer recommended the board aim for a $21.77 million roll-over budget, an increase of about $240,000 in expenditures from the 2013-14 budget and invest in instruction. Along with this, he wants to settle contracts with the district’s two largest unions, and go ahead with the money-saving measures that he says can make the plan work.</p>
<p>He outlined $1.58 million that the board has at its disposal as it crafts the budget. This includes at least $204,000 in more aid expected from the state and a host of cost-cutting measures.</p>
<p>Since he arrived at the district last summer, Palmer said $604,000 in savings has been made beyond any costs factored into the current budget year. The savings come from the elimination of three bus runs, a secretarial position after a retirement, and four teacher aid positions. Five retiring teachers were replaced with newer, lower-paid ones, he said, a maintenance position was left unfilled, and a shared food services director with the Greenville Central School District added to the savings.</p>
<p>Interim Business Official Mark Kellett has calculated the district’s maximum allowable levy increase at 3.1 percent.</p>
<p>Possible reductions listed by Palmer included the combination of the district’s two kitchens and use of part-time staff or Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) staff. He said a supervisor of the maintenance department could be shared with Greenville. Palmer expects more bus routes could be eliminated, BOCES services could be used in the business office, and special-education classes now conducted in other districts could be hosted locally. The total potential savings would be between $450,000 and $675,000.</p>
<p>BOCES services cost the disrict less because a percentage of the expenses is reimbursed by the state.</p>
<p>Palmer estimated the net cost per year of settling contracts for both the teachers’ union and the Civil Service Employees Association would be $55,000.</p>
<p>Among the improvements Palmer gave as options for improving academic performance at BKW would be the addition of a job coach for special-education students, materials and texts for new curriculum, extra academic support tutors, additional full- and part-time teachers in music, art, and computer programming, equipment repair, and training and coaching for teachers.</p>
<p>A parent, Amy Anderson, suggested the board use its money for savings, to avoid the “horrible” experience of cuts in past years and build back programs over a longer period of time.</p>
<p>Elementary Principal Audrey Roettgers said, to improve student performance, teachers need time and training, part of Palmer’s recommendations, to comb through data as they work to teach with the new Common Core standards. She also said a full-time librarian could help BKW students become more comfortable with the increasing demands of technology.</p>
<p>What little opposition there was from community members who spoke after Palmer’s presentation was most often against his idea of sharing a supervisor for the maintenance department with Greenville. It would save $30,000 per year for BKW and remove Peter Shunney from the current head role.</p>
<p>A professional design engineer for the state’s Education Department, Daniel Lim, told the school board he reviews designs for school buildings from the across the state and met Shunney once in a five-minute meeting.</p>
<p>“In that five minutes, he went over and above my head in terms of his knowledge of his operating system here and how he ran things than I’ve seen in many of the professional design engineers that are out there,” Lim said of Shunney.</p>
<p>Palmer has said he expects Shunney would not lose a job if the plan goes through, but the requirements for the new role would be beyond Shunney’s qualifications.</p>
<p>Helen Lounsbury, a retired BKW teacher and former school board member, warned against reducing jobs in the community to save money.</p>
<p>“They knew you, they looked out for you,” she said of past kitchen workers at the school. “You can’t put a price on something like that.”</p>
<p>Most speakers and all the board members were grateful for Palmer’s “menu” of options for going forward in the budget process. The school board heard the information for the first time Monday night.</p>
<p>The board’s vice president, Vasilios Lefkaditis questioned whether the $604,000 in savings so far properly accounts for projected variations in retirement insurance and payroll taxes. He also said the cost of one of Palmer’s options for improving programs, the addition of seven teachers’ aids, outweighed the savings from reducing those position earlier in the year.</p>
<p>“The pitch was we could afford the contracts because of the savings,” Lefkaditis said of Teacher Support Staff contracts. He also cautioned against spending without a method of evaluating a program.</p>
<p>Palmer has planned a community forum for March and plans to meet with the district’s budget advisory committeee for more input. The committee, made up of the superintendent, students, district employees, residents, the business official, and board members, traditionally met several months before this time in previous years.</p>
<p>The budget deadline for adoption is late April, with a state-set public vote on May 20.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">February 27, 2014</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/berne-knox-westerlo" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Berne-Knox-Westerlo</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/budget" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">budget</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-2" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/lonnie-palmer" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lonnie Palmer</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-3" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/taxes" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">taxes</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-4" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/education" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">education</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Thu, 27 Feb 2014 22:18:21 +0000admin2359 at http://www.altamontenterprise.comCrowd rallies for fired coachhttp://www.altamontenterprise.com/sports/berne-knox-westerlo/10242013/crowd-rallies-fired-coach
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/jordan-j-michael" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jordan J. Michael</a></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-images clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-images/883" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/IMG_1967_0.JPG?itok=PZ75G9ad" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/IMG_1967_0.JPG?itok=fl8rABLZ" width="300" height="462" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The Enterprise — Jordan J. Michael<br /><strong>Overwhelming support:</strong> A Berne-Knox-Westerlo basketball player hugs the former varsity head coach, Andy Wright, on Monday after being part of a group of players who stood in front of the school board, voicing their disgust about Wright’s firing. About 20 people spoke in front of the school board, and each person supported Wright.</p>
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/DSC04434_0.JPG?itok=Vq59BUlp" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/DSC04434_0.JPG?itok=1yp7eKch" width="300" height="244" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia<br /><strong>Walk of honor: </strong>Andy Wright walks away from the podium, and gets a standing ovation after speaking at the Berne-Knox-Westerlo school board meeting on Monday night; the varsity basketball coaching position remains open after Wright’s recent firing. During his speech, Wright said that the school board has a “petty agenda.” Two school board members, seated at left, President Joan Adriance and Vice President Vasilios Lefkaditis, are clapping after Wright’s speech.</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>BERNE — A vocal crowd in support of the fired basketball coach, Andy Wright, could get no answers from the school board during an intense meeting Monday night, but a list of district expectations reveal that the complaints centered entirely on coaching.</p>
<p>After an hour-and-three-quarters closed meeting with the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board Wednesday night, the interim superintendent, Lonnie Palmer, said he made a mistake on Monday night not responding at the time to the crowd. A response should have been made acknowledging the outpouring, he said, but the board still could not comment on issues involving a particular employee and was not going to act on anything discussed; it was not on the agenda.</p>
<p>Further, Palmer said he would be writing a statement, to be approved by the board, for next week’s<em> </em><em>Enterprise</em>.</p>
<p>Many in Monday’s crowd demanded to know why Wright was being fired after 10 years as head boys’ varsity coach. Wright has said repeatedly he was given no reason and Tom Galvin, the athletic director, who resigned in protest over the firing, said that Palmer gave only this explanation: the district wanted to move in a different direction.</p>
<p>A two-year-old document obtained from Wright lists what the district’s problems with Wright were at the time. </p>
<p>On Oct. 28, 2011, former BKW principal Thomas McGurl addressed a letter to Wright, outlining seven expectations he would need to follow as coach of the varsity team for the 2011-12 season. The letter was a follow up to a meeting held two days before: Wright; McGurl; the former superintendent, Paul Dorward; and Galvin were present at that meeting.</p>
<p>The seven expectations ranged from not allowing Wright’s players in his classroom during the day — he’s a tenured social studies teacher at BKW — to being on time for all basketball practices and events.</p>
<p>Also, issues regarding Wright’s behavior and equality of players were raised.</p>
<p>At the time, Wright and Galvin said, they weren’t told the source of complaints, but Wright agreed to follow the list of expectations to “make the school proud,” he said.</p>
<p>A message left by <em>The Enterprise</em> for Dorward, currently the superintendent at Beacon City Schools, was not returned. McGurl, now the principal and athletic director at Fort Edward High School, declined to comment about the 2011 letter.</p>
<p>“I don’t want to be involved with what’s going on over there,” said McGurl on Wednesday. “If there’s a lawsuit down the line, I don’t want to be involved.”</p>
<p>Wright, who met with a representative from the New York State United Teachers on Monday, said on Tuesday that he’s not seeking legal action against BKW at this time, but did say that he has questions about supposed anonymous surveys being given about coaches at the district.</p>
<p>“Decisions were made for me, not by me,” said Wright. “Publicly, in a lot of ways, there’s questions about who I am, and that’s not good. I don’t want to rely on a lawsuit, but people should know why I’m being fired.”</p>
<p>Galvin said on Wednesday that when the 2011-12 basketball season was over, McGurl, Dorward, Wright, and himself had a meeting, but Galvin wasn’t sure if the meeting was documented. Galvin said that Dorward and McGurl complimented Wright, and were satisfied with how the coach upheld the list of expectations.</p>
<p>“He met everything that was put on the table,” Galvin said of Wright. “It’s very similar to what is going on right now; there’s this cloud of mystery. It’s all perception.”</p>
<h3 class="EnterpriseBody"><strong>Outspoken supporters</strong></h3>
<p>A score of people spoke in front of the school board on Monday night, all in support of Wright, who also said his piece at the microphone. People started yelling at the school board members when they got no response. While the screaming went on, the school board members sat in silence.</p>
<p>“You got voted in, but we can vote you out,” shouted Dennis Barber, who coaches eighth-grade boys’ basketball at BKW and wrote a letter to the <em>Enterprise</em> editor in support of Wright last week.</p>
<p>The school board moved into the “new business” portion of Monday’s meeting as many unsatisfied community members started to leave the auditorium.</p>
<p>Wright told <em>The Enterprise </em>on Tuesday that he doesn’t support the actions of those who hollered at the school board on Monday. He was advised by many people to not speak himself, but said he “felt beaten down” and “people needed to hear my voice.”</p>
<p>“That was mob behavior, but I had no control over it,” Wright said. “I didn’t try to antagonize anything.”</p>
<p>However, the audience exploded with loud ovations all evening as people walked to and from the microphone. Most of the speakers hugged Wright or shook his hand after they voiced opinions.</p>
<p>“I’m not apart from reality,” said Wright on Monday. “I didn’t make these people talk.”</p>
<p>Larry Wilson, whose son, Tristan, played for Wright until graduating last June, spoke to the school board about cynicism, and how it’s leading to a “downward spiral.”</p>
<p>Garrett Pitcher, BKW’s all-time leading male scorer, and his older sister, Amber, who played for Galvin on the girls’ team, struggled to hold back tears at the podium. “You play to win, and play to be a family,” Amber said, “and that’s what Coach Wright has done.”</p>
<p>“If you pick anyone else, it’s pathetic,” Garrett Pitcher told the school board.</p>
<p>Bill LeBarr, a 2009 BKW graduate and co-Western Athletic Conference champion under Wright, got the crowd to cheer in the middle of his speech. “Andy’s [Wright] face is the face on that Bulldog,” he said. “I’m not going to let this man fall on your sword.”</p>
<p>Former Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Siena College assistant basketball coach, Brian Rubino, came up to Berne from Colonie on Monday. He’s the director of the Capital District Post Players Camp, and he said that Wright has brought some BKW players to the camp.</p>
<p>“He’s willing to pay out of his pocket to get a kid into the camp,” Rubino said. “I tell him that that’s foolish, but he’s concerned about the kids.”</p>
<p>Galvin stood in front of the school board on Monday, imploring the members to “stop the madness.” He pointed at Wright, saying Wright was a “broken man.”</p>
<p>Eric Prescott, a 2008 BKW graduate who played for Wright, told the school board he had talked to some current Bulldogs’ players, and some said they wouldn’t play for another coach. Prescott never had the desire to play basketball in high school — he said he was a “punk” kid — but Wright had helped him become a responsible person.</p>
<p>“I didn’t play a lot during my senior year, but I continued to support the team,” Prescott said. “I became a better man.”</p>
<p>While Andrew Haverly asked the school board about the proposed “new direction” of the boys’ basketball team, Mike Puzulis placed a petition — calling for Wright’s reinstatement — of 340 signatures in front of the board members. Vice President Vasilios Lefkaditis slid the petition to his right, not picking up the paper.</p>
<p>Before anyone even spoke about Wright on Monday night, school board President Joan Adriance told the crowd that the board wouldn’t be commenting on “personnel matters.”</p>
<p>About 90 minutes later, with most of the audience gone, the school board voted on winter coaching appointments. The varsity, junior-varsity, and seventh-grade boys’ basketball positions remained open; BKW will be interviewing for the jobs up until the next Nov. 4 school board meeting.</p>
<h3 class="EnterpriseBody"><strong>Social media</strong></h3>
<p>The furor over Wright's dismissal has been broadcast over social media sites Facebook and Twitter, with a page in support of him dating back to the period when he was given the list of expectations. </p>
<p>Palmer said multiple cases of student and staff conduct on social media have been referred to the school district’s lawyer in the past few months. Palmer told <em>The Enterprise</em> after Wednesday’s meeting that he would be researching the school’s policies to determine whether its guidelines are specific enough to cover conduct on social media sites. </p>
<p>Cases involving the sites are complicated and addressed on a case-by-case basis, said Palmer.</p>
<p>The school’s policies cover employee and student conduct, on and off campus, but don’t mention social media. </p>
<p>A policy on staff conduct states: “The personal life of an employee warrants the attention of the Board only as it may directly affect the employee’s fitness to perform the job, his/her fitness to be placed in a position of trust with children, the property of the district, or constitute a conflict of interest.”</p>
<p>Wright's Twitter account features protestations of his innocence and words of support from others. </p>
<p>“I don't worry about what appears on FB or Twitter. Although it is interesting to see who is linked to who and the relationships behind it,” Wright wrote on his Twitter account on Wednesday.</p>
<p>“Really can't wait to look some people right in the eyes tomorrow,” another Tweet said, posted the day before the board meeting. “Gift of insight is a blessing and a curse. You will show me and I will know.”</p>
<p>Secondary School Principal Brian Corey told <em>The Enterprise</em> at the Monday meeting that he hasn't had any issues arise of teachers using social media improperly.</p>
<p>“Obviously, you have to be as professional as possible. You are a public face," Corey said of teachers.</p>
<h3 class="EnterpriseBody"><strong>Improvement plan</strong></h3>
<p>Here’s a list of the seven expectations that McGurl wrote for Wright prior to the 2011-12 basketball season, followed by comments from Wright and Galvin:</p>
<p><em>— Between the hours of 8:00 and 3:10 your room will be used for the purpose of academics. Your athletes are not to be in your room during that time unless they are for class. </em></p>
<p>Wright says that players like to be around a coach. “They wouldn’t disrupt class, but they’d catch up in between class,” he said. “The kids would attempt to see me, but practice and game time would be their only access”;</p>
<p><em>— You’re on and off court behavior must exemplify a mature and composed leader of a varsity program. Outbursts, unprofessional displays of anger and frustration will not be tolerated. This includes verbal and physical displays.</em></p>
<p>“Any basketball coach could fall victim to this, arguing calls with officials,” Galvin said. “Andy [Wright] might have scowled, been acting more negative than he actually was. In a game, you’re fighting for your team, trying to do the best.”</p>
<p>Wright said that he was told that his sideline demeanor was too animated, and that he scowled or looked angry too much. “My character was questioned, but I didn’t feel like I was out of line,” said Wright. “I matured in the position. I wasn’t as mature when I started, but I made strides.”</p>
<p>During a basketball game, hundreds of people are watching. The coach is always under a microscope, Galvin said.</p>
<p>“Every coach is negative sometimes; kids need to understand their mistakes,” said Galvin. “You break them down, and then build them up.”</p>
<p>Wright took the criticism of his behavior, he said, putting on a poker face. “I would smile, laugh things off,” he said. “I made the school look good”;</p>
<p><em>— All interactions with parents and community members are to be professional and when possible proactive.</em></p>
<p>Every parent needs to protect their child, said Wright, a father of five. Wright says he was always appropriate when parents approached him with questions.</p>
<p>“You have to identify the problems before letters are written,” said Wright. “You do the best you can, and make sure that people understand that you care”;</p>
<p><em>— Both the Athletic Director and Secondary Principal are to be included in all issues involving the team that may be potentially problematic for the district.</em></p>
<p>Wright believes that this expectation is now ironic; BKW’s current principal, Brian Corey, and former athletic director, Galvin, were not informed of Wright’s firing until they all sat down with Palmer, on Oct. 8.</p>
<p>“It’s the exact opposite of how this situation has gone,” said Wright. “For me to follow that, and I did, it’s including perspective that I hadn’t presented something, or handled something. Obviously, now, things are being presented that are problematic, and the other side is completely absent.”</p>
<p>BKW’s athletic director was always aware of everything, Wright said. He and Galvin had constant communication, and that’s the only way a coach could survive, he said.</p>
<p>Before his resignation as athletic director, Galvin said that he and Corey would talk about Wright’s progress as coach, and Corey was supportive. Corey did not return calls seeking comment for this story. </p>
<p>People say that Wright and Galvin are friends, and Galvin acknowledged that as truth at Monday’s school board meeting during his speech.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, Galvin said that Wright has followed all of the rules. “McGurl and Dorward weren’t Andy’s friend, and they were supervising him, too,” he said. “I took my athletic director job seriously, and acted with professionalism.”</p>
<p>Wright suspects that the BKW administration is running through another channel, like anonymous coaching surveys. It’s beyond the chain of command, he said;</p>
<p>—<em> </em><em>You must support and enforce the Athletic Code of Conduct with all of your athletes in every situation.</em></p>
<p>There were no specifics or particulars with this expectation, Wright said. </p>
<p>“It’s hearsay, circumstance,” he said. “What’s the controversy here? This is not a game of chess with the school board”;</p>
<p><em>— You are to be on time to all practices and rigidly adhere to pre-set and distributed practice schedule.</em></p>
<p>BKW basketball coaches share a gym, so the door was usually open, Wright said. There was constant supervision.</p>
<p>“There was one circumstance last year when I was late for a bus; my wife’s car broke down,” said Wright. “I was 10 minutes late, and called first, so they waited.”</p>
<p>Wright said that being on time has never been a problem; and</p>
<p><em>— You must treat every athlete equally regardless of ability.</em></p>
<p>Upon hearing this final expectation, Wright said he asked McGurl if the matter had to do with playing time, which is not guaranteed at the varsity level according to the districts athletic code. McGurl denied that it was about minutes, said Wright; McGurl told Wright that the concern was about treating players fairly.</p>
<p>“I always gave respect,” Wright said. “I wanted to coach.”</p>
<p>Galvin told <em>The Enterprise </em>that McGurl could have worded his final expectation of Wright any way, but it was about how individuals were treated. Galvin, who has coached the BKW girls’ varsity basketball team for 15 years, said that some athletes might be treated better than others.</p>
<p>“Some kids aren’t as involved as some of the others,” said Galvin. “You build relationships with certain people who share certain desires. They’re in the gym early, and they stay late. They’re leaders who have your back.”</p>
<p>Liz Harvey and Garrett Pitcher — Harvey is BKW’s all-time leading scorer and Pitcher is the school’s highest male scorer — both graduated last June. Galvin coached Harvey for five years, and Wright coached Pitcher for four.</p>
<p>“They could be seen as favorites, sure,” said Galvin. “Some kids buy all the way in, and some just go through the motions, not buying in. If a player does what they’re asked, the relationship will be good. It just depends on how much they care.”</p>
<p>With coaching favorites, Galvin said, the perception is skewed.</p>
<p>“It will surface if I did something wrong,” Wright said. “I’m not out of my mind. I know what I’ve done.”</p>
<p>Tom Dunn, a spokesman for the State Education Department, said that Teacher Improvement Plans went into effect last September as part of the required statewide evaluation process, but he said, “There’s no statewide evaluation of coaches.”</p>
<p>Asked if coaches have any employment guarantees like teachers do, Dunn said, “We don’t have anything to do with coaches.” He added that hiring or firing coaches is a local matter.</p>
<p>New York State law, however, requires that public-school employment of coaches to be voted on by elected school boards. </p>
<p>Towards the end of McGurl’s 2011 letter to Wright, McGurl writes, “Should the issue be of a serious nature, your position may be terminated mid-season. It should also be noted, that should any of these points be violated, you will not be asked to coach again at BKW.”</p>
<p>Wright was appointed as coach for the 2012-13 season, and the Bulldogs came within one three-pointer of beating eventual Class C state champion Lake George. </p>
<p>Wright said he has tried to be ethical ever since those expectations were presented to him in 2011.</p>
<p>“There was a best interest of winning, but it was never over the kids,” said Wright, who did not win a sectional title in 10 years of coaching. “I hope this isn’t about wins or losses; wins were secondary. I played guys when they probably shouldn’t have played.”</p>
<p>Wright said he had no dialogue with Palmer at Monday’s school board meeting, but the two did make eye contact while Wright spoke to the board. Palmer has never seen Wright coach basketball, he said. </p>
<p>Palmer was appointed to a year’s stint as interim superintendent this summer after Dorward left for a larger district. </p>
<p>“He doesn’t have enough knowledge about me,” Wright said of Palmer. “The second time we ever spoke, he told me I wouldn’t be coaching. This is business to him, just business.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a varsity basketball program waits in the wings.</p>
<p>“Yeah, some old issues haven’t been let go, and maybe it’s the same people,” Galvin said of the complainants. “Andy moved on, but skeletons have been dug up, and they’re trying to stick to the wall. It’s double jeopardy.”</p>
<p><em>— Marcello Iaia contributed the section on social media and the reporting on Wednesday’s executive session of the school board.</em></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">October 24, 2013</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/coach-andy-wright" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Coach Andy Wright</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/lonnie-palmer" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lonnie Palmer</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-2" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/tom-galvin" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Tom Galvin</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Thu, 24 Oct 2013 23:18:12 +0000admin1355 at http://www.altamontenterprise.comNew board, new business at BKWhttp://www.altamontenterprise.com/news/hilltowns/07202013/new-board-new-business-bkw
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>BERNE — At the end of its July 15 meeting, the school board used colorful markers and shiny stickers to determine its priorities and goals for the year: settle contracts, improve academic scores, differentiate instruction, reduce bullying, create budget timelines, and promote positive news.</p>
<p>“It will make our work a little easier,” Lonnie Palmer, who supplied the markers, said after the board finished discussing its goals. Palmer started as Berne-Knox-Westerlo’s interim superintendent in July, after the previous superintendent left lead a larger district.</p>
<p>The resignations of two more administrators were accepted Monday, representing a marked shift and a substantial changes to be made by new board members and administrators before school starts in September. These followed on the heels of not only the superintendent’s resignation but also that of the elementary principal, leaving just the secondary school principal in place.</p>
<p>Within a few hours on Monday, the Berne-Knox-Westerlo school board voted unanimously to accept the resignations of Business Official David Hodgkinson and Director of Transportation Denise Towne, declared emergency reconstruction to repair its water-damaged high school library, and accepted recommendations for correcting 194 Vehicle and Traffic Law violations in its transportation department.</p>
<p>Board members Joan Adriance, Earl Barcomb, and Chasity McGivern were voted into three seats on the board in May. McGivern began immediately while the others had their first meeting on July 1, when Adriance was voted as the board’s president. No one on the board has served more than one term.</p>
<p>Gerald Larghe was nominated by Vasilios Lefkaditis, the previous school board president, to the position, but had only two votes during the reorganizational meeting. Adriance won with votes from Barcomb, McGivern, and herself. Lefkaditis said the most obvious difference between his last year as president and the next with Adriance will be in the decorum of meetings.</p>
<p>“I was much more blunt,” said Lefkaditis. “I think she’s far more diplomatic.” Lefkaditis was unanimously elected as the new vice president.</p>
<p>Hodgkinson, who joined the rural district in November, is seeking other jobs. Palmer said the Capital Region Board of Cooperative Educational Services recommended Mark Kellett as an interim replacement.</p>
<p>Kellet, a retired business official for the Schalmont Central School District in Schenectady County, started at BKW on July 9 and was appointed by the board, 5 to 0, with additional responsibilities as custodian of the petty cash fund, purchasing agent, records-access management officer, workers’ compensation consortium co-trustee, payroll certification officer, Title I coordinator, and property control manager.</p>
<p>Palmer said Kellett and other BOCES services for the transportation department would cost the district about $110,000. BOCES aid will cover $65,000 of that, Palmer said. He expects BKW could benefit in the future with more employees and services through BOCES, since the state partly reimburses participating districts, and for using shared services.</p>
<p>With a chart of the different out of district routes for children with special needs ,or attending private or parochial schools, to attend nearby school districts, Palmer told board members that BKW buses drive to 23 different sites while the next highest number for another district is 15. He said he would like to consider whether or not replacements need to be found for two retired bus drivers, instead consolidating routes to save $100,000 in annual costs for each. One route, Palmer said, takes one child to Oneonta.</p>
<p>“We need to think about how we can get fewer kids to leave the district, serve more kids in the district, and consolidate those sites at which they are served outside the district,” said Palmer.</p>
<p>Palmer described Kellett’s role as evaluating the transportation department in light of its numerous violations of Vehicle and Traffic Law and to work on long-term issues for the district.</p>
<p>“That’s what the board hired me for, and I’m looking for the same thing,” he told The Enterprise.</p>
<h3 class="body-text"><strong>Goals</strong></h3>
<p>On large sheets of paper hung behind their meeting table, board members displayed lists of goals, including two from former board members Jill Norray and Helen Lounsbury.</p>
<p>Palmer showed his first: “1. Settle contracts,” “2. Professional approach,” and “3. Improve morale through turning problems into opportunities.”</p>
<p>“Settle contracts,” which have been expired for years with three of the district’s four bargaining units, attracted several stickers and featured on other lists. In June, the previous school board presented an outline of what it had last offered to the teachers’ union in contract negotiations.</p>
<p>The most stickers went to goals focused on academic achievement. On board President Joan Adriance’s list, the goal required at least three new ways to increase student scores, measured by increasing the percentage of elementary and middle school students in the top two of four categories on English and Math tests and the percentage of secondary school students achieving a minimum of 80 percent on math and science Regents exams by 15 percent over three years. Board members said such details of their goals, however, would be solidified later.</p>
<p>Other goals called for reducing bullying, focusing on positive news in the school, and managing a timeline for the budget.</p>
<h3 class="body-text"><strong>Library reconstruction</strong></h3>
<p>A downpour of rain in late June caused the roof drains of an area of the secondary school school to back up and led to the wooden floor of the high school library swelling by almost a foot where the drains run underneath. </p>
<p>“At that point, the high school principal was in the building and he said there was four inches of water standing in the library,” Palmer told The Enterprise. He said there was no damage to books.</p>
<p>The BKW summer school program is held this year at Schoharie, with which it shares classes through the season.</p>
<p>Carpeting, books, and shelving have been taken out and the area cleaned and some damaged wallboard has been removed, Palmer said; clean-up and repair will require no more than $120,000.</p>
<p>This week, Palmer said, workers will determine where the pipes ruptured. He explained that the repair would not require digging through the floor and removing the pipe, and he did not know the exact cause of the problem.</p>
<p>According to Palmer, the building was first constructed in 1932 with the area of the library used to park buses. In 1965, it became a woodshop.</p>
<p>“When they did that, they put a moisture barrier between the concrete floor that was below and the wood that was above, and that moisture barrier contained asbestos,” said Palmer. “And that’s part of the reason why our cost is so high.”</p>
<p>In 2005, the space became a library.</p>
<p>Palmer described the damage as two bumps, one large and one small, in the wooden floor, with the larger one stretching more than 15 feet long. Interviews for the new elementary school principal have been moved to another part of the building, he said.</p>
<h3 class="body-text"><strong>Hiring</strong></h3>
<p>High school earth science teacher Sean O’Brien commended the community and administrators during the public discussion period on Monday and thanked parents and students for their support.</p>
<p>Palmer said O’Brien offered to move to teaching sixth grade science when a district employee on leave of absence said on July 1 she would return to be a full-time high school science teacher. Palmer left open a fourth elementary-school teacher position, for a fifth-grade teacher, in case the teacher does return, in which case the sixth-grade teacher displaced by O’Brien would move to fifth.</p>
<p>“She could reverse course,” said Palmer, noting that her intention in writing is to return.</p>
<p>At first, administrators considered eliminating the two part-time positions based on seniority, Palmer said after the meeting.</p>
<p>“Over my eight years here, I’ve been so impressed, year after year,” said O’Brien from the back of the gallery. “And this is one further example of that.”</p>
<p>Jennifer Alotta, who has been a certified substitute teacher in BKW for three years, sat in the front of the gallery with her husband.</p>
<p>“If you make a commitment to a district…you should be given some type of consideration for an interview,” Alotta told The Enterprise.</p>
<p>Alotta, who lives in Duanesburg, applied for one of the elementary school teaching positions, but did not get called for an interview. Her husband, who declined to give his name, said their message to the board was to open a discussion about its hiring policies, which they believe should give weight to applicants from within the district.</p>
<p>Palmer said after the meeting that a committee screened around 900 résumés before people were called for interviews. Over 20 people had interviews, he said, and about that many are now substitute teachers for the district.</p>
<h3 class="body-text"><strong>Other business</strong></h3>
<p>In other business, the school board:</p>
<p>— Heard from Adriance that she and Palmer have been added to the board of education e-mail group, which can be found on the district website. For legal protection, she said, all board members should use the designated address.</p>
<p>Adriance asked that requests for information sent to any one board member include all other members in the e-mail.</p>
<p>“We shouldn’t be asking things of each other without all of us being included in those conversations,” said Adriance;</p>
<p>— Approved, 5 to 0, a bond resolution of no more than $201,812 to purchase four buses, as approved by voters in May. The rest of the cost will be covered by $130,000 from the transportation reserve fund. Hodgkinson has said state aid is expected to eliminate the net cost to the district;</p>
<p>— Accepted, 5 to 0, the resignation of district mechanic Joseph R. Hoffman III, effective July 5;</p>
<p>— Appointed, 5 to 0, Heather Casullo as elementary school teacher with a $44,810 annual salary, effective Sept 1;</p>
<p>— Appointed, 5 to 0, Janine Sargalis as elementary school teacher with a $42,974 annual salary, effective Sept. 1;</p>
<p>— Appointed, 5 to 0, Jennifer Zeh as elementary school teacher with a $44,810 annual salary, effective Sept. 1; and</p>
<p>— Approved, 5 to 0, the request by recently-retired Nancy Redikowski to be placed on the district clerical substitute call list.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">July 20, 2013</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/goals" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">goals</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/bkw" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">BKW</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-2" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/schoo-board" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">schoo board</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-3" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/joan-adriance" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Joan Adriance</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-4" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/lonnie-palmer" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lonnie Palmer</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-5" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/library" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">library</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-6" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/rain" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">rain</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-7" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/boces" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">BOCES</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Sat, 20 Jul 2013 12:31:31 +0000reporter265 at http://www.altamontenterprise.comNew board, new business: BKW busy with library repairs, administrators' resignationshttp://www.altamontenterprise.com/news/berne-knox-westerlo/07182013/new-board-new-business-bkw-busy-library-repairs-administrators
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>BERNE — At the end of its July 15 meeting, the school board used colorful markers and shiny stickers to determine its priorities and goals for the year: settle contracts, improve academic scores, differentiate instruction, reduce bullying, create budget timelines, and promote positive news.</p>
<p>“It will make our work a little easier,” Lonnie Palmer, who supplied the markers, said after the board finished discussing its goals. Palmer started as Berne-Knox-Westerlo’s interim superintendent in July, after the previous superintendent left lead a larger district.</p>
<p>The resignations of two more administrators were accepted Monday, representing a marked shift and a substantial changes to be made by new board members and administrators before school starts in September. These followed on the heels of not only the superintendent’s resignation but also that of the elementary principal, leaving just the secondary school principal in place.</p>
<p>Within a few hours on Monday, the Berne-Knox-Westerlo school board voted unanimously to accept the resignations of Business Official David Hodgkinson and Director of Transportation Denise Towne, declared emergency reconstruction to repair its water-damaged high school library, and accepted recommendations for correcting 194 Vehicle and Traffic Law violations in its transportation department.</p>
<p>Board members Joan Adriance, Earl Barcomb, and Chasity McGivern were voted into three seats on the board in May. McGivern began immediately while the others had their first meeting on July 1, when Adriance was voted as the board’s president. No one on the board has served more than one term.</p>
<p>Gerald Larghe was nominated by Vasilios Lefkaditis, the previous school board president, to the position, but had only two votes during the reorganizational meeting. Adriance won with votes from Barcomb, McGivern, and herself. Lefkaditis said the most obvious difference between his last year as president and the next with Adriance will be in the decorum of meetings.</p>
<p>“I was much more blunt,” said Lefkaditis. “I think she’s far more diplomatic.” Lefkaditis was unanimously elected as the new vice president.</p>
<p>Hodgkinson, who joined the rural district in November, is seeking other jobs. Palmer said the Capital Region Board of Cooperative Educational Services recommended Mark Kellett as an interim replacement.</p>
<p>Kellet, a retired business official for the Schalmont Central School District in Schenectady County, started at BKW on July 9 and was appointed by the board, 5 to 0, with additional responsibilities as custodian of the petty cash fund, purchasing agent, records-access management officer, workers’ compensation consortium co-trustee, payroll certification officer, Title I coordinator, and property control manager.</p>
<p>Palmer said Kellett and other BOCES services for the transportation department would cost the district about $110,000. BOCES aid will cover $65,000 of that, Palmer said. He expects BKW could benefit in the future with more employees and services through BOCES, since the state partly reimburses participating districts, and for using shared services.</p>
<p>With a chart of the different out of district routes for children with special needs ,or attending private or parochial schools, to attend nearby school districts, Palmer told board members that BKW buses drive to 23 different sites while the next highest number for another district is 15. He said he would like to consider whether or not replacements need to be found for two retired bus drivers, instead consolidating routes to save $100,000 in annual costs for each. One route, Palmer said, takes one child to Oneonta.</p>
<p>“We need to think about how we can get fewer kids to leave the district, serve more kids in the district, and consolidate those sites at which they are served outside the district,” said Palmer.</p>
<p>Palmer described Kellett’s role as evaluating the transportation department in light of its numerous violations of Vehicle and Traffic Law and to work on long-term issues for the district.</p>
<p>“That’s what the board hired me for, and I’m looking for the same thing,” he told The Enterprise.</p>
<h3>Goals</h3>
<p>On large sheets of paper hung behind their meeting table, board members displayed lists of goals, including two from former board members Jill Norray and Helen Lounsbury.</p>
<p>Palmer showed his first: “1. Settle contracts,” “2. Professional approach,” and “3. Improve morale through turning problems into opportunities.”</p>
<p>“Settle contracts,” which have been expired for years with three of the district’s four bargaining units, attracted several stickers and featured on other lists. In June, the previous school board presented an outline of what it had last offered to the teachers’ union in contract negotiations.</p>
<p>The most stickers went to goals focused on academic achievement. On board President Joan Adriance’s list, the goal required at least three new ways to increase student scores, measured by increasing the percentage of elementary and middle school students in the top two of four categories on English and Math tests and the percentage of secondary school students achieving a minimum of 80 percent on math and science Regents exams by 15 percent over three years. Board members said such details of their goals, however, would be solidified later.</p>
<p>Other goals called for reducing bullying, focusing on positive news in the school, and managing a timeline for the budget.</p>
<h3>Library reconstruction</h3>
<p>A downpour of rain in late June caused the roof drains of an area of the secondary school school to back up and led to the wooden floor of the high school library swelling by almost a foot where the drains run underneath.</p>
<p>“At that point, the high school principal was in the building and he said there was four inches of water standing in the library,” Palmer told The Enterprise. He said there was no damage to books.</p>
<p>The BKW summer school program is held this year at Schoharie, with which it shares classes through the season.</p>
<p>Carpeting, books, and shelving have been taken out and the area cleaned and some damaged wallboard has been removed, Palmer said; clean-up and repair will require no more than $120,000.</p>
<p>This week, Palmer said, workers will determine where the pipes ruptured. He explained that the repair would not require digging through the floor and removing the pipe, and he did not know the exact cause of the problem.</p>
<p>According to Palmer, the building was first constructed in 1932 with the area of the library used to park buses. In 1965, it became a woodshop.</p>
<p>“When they did that, they put a moisture barrier between the concrete floor that was below and the wood that was above, and that moisture barrier contained asbestos,” said Palmer. “And that’s part of the reason why our cost is so high.”</p>
<p>In 2005, the space became a library.</p>
<p>Palmer described the damage as two bumps, one large and one small, in the wooden floor, with the larger one stretching more than 15 feet long. Interviews for the new elementary school principal have been moved to another part of the building, he said.</p>
<h3>Hiring</h3>
<p>High school earth science teacher Sean O’Brien commended the community and administrators during the public discussion period on Monday and thanked parents and students for their support.</p>
<p>Palmer said O’Brien offered to move to teaching sixth grade science when a district employee on leave of absence said on July 1 she would return to be a full-time high school science teacher. Palmer left open a fourth elementary-school teacher position, for a fifth-grade teacher, in case the teacher does return, in which case the sixth-grade teacher displaced by O’Brien would move to fifth.</p>
<p>“She could reverse course,” said Palmer, noting that her intention in writing is to return.</p>
<p>At first, administrators considered eliminating the two part-time positions based on seniority, Palmer said after the meeting.</p>
<p>“Over my eight years here, I’ve been so impressed, year after year,” said O’Brien from the back of the gallery. “And this is one further example of that.”</p>
<p>Jennifer Alotta, who has been a certified substitute teacher in BKW for three years, sat in the front of the gallery with her husband.</p>
<p>“If you make a commitment to a district…you should be given some type of consideration for an interview,” Alotta told The Enterprise.</p>
<p>Alotta, who lives in Duanesburg, applied for one of the elementary school teaching positions, but did not get called for an interview. Her husband, who declined to give his name, said their message to the board was to open a discussion about its hiring policies, which they believe should give weight to applicants from within the district.</p>
<p>Palmer said after the meeting that a committee screened around 900 résumés before people were called for interviews. Over 20 people had interviews, he said, and about that many are now substitute teachers for the district.</p>
<h3> Other business</h3>
<p>In other business, the school board:</p>
<p>— Heard from Adriance that she and Palmer have been added to the board of education e-mail group, which can be found on the district website. For legal protection, she said, all board members should use the designated address.</p>
<p>Adriance asked that requests for information sent to any one board member include all other members in the e-mail.</p>
<p>“We shouldn’t be asking things of each other without all of us being included in those conversations,” said Adriance;</p>
<p>— Approved, 5 to 0, a bond resolution of no more than $201,812 to purchase four buses, as approved by voters in May. The rest of the cost will be covered by $130,000 from the transportation reserve fund. Hodgkinson has said state aid is expected to eliminate the net cost to the district;</p>
<p>— Accepted, 5 to 0, the resignation of district mechanic Joseph R. Hoffman III, effective July 5;</p>
<p>— Appointed, 5 to 0, Heather Casullo as elementary school teacher with a $44,810 annual salary, effective Sept 1;</p>
<p>— Appointed, 5 to 0, Janine Sargalis as elementary school teacher with a $42,974 annual salary, effective Sept. 1;</p>
<p>— Appointed, 5 to 0, Jennifer Zeh as elementary school teacher with a $44,810 annual salary, effective Sept. 1; and</p>
<p>— Approved, 5 to 0, the request by recently-retired Nancy Redikowski to be placed on the district clerical substitute call list.</p>
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</div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">July 18, 2013</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/joan-adriance" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Joan Adriance</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/lonnie-palmer" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lonnie Palmer</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-2" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/library" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">library</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-3" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/19a-violations" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">19A violations</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-4" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/boces" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">BOCES</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-5" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/substitute-teachers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">substitute teachers</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Thu, 18 Jul 2013 22:08:56 +0000reporter254 at http://www.altamontenterprise.comLonnie Palmer looks for 'happy accidents'http://www.altamontenterprise.com/news/berne-knox-westerlo/06162013/lonnie-palmer-looks-happy-accidents
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>BERNE — Within four years, Lonnie Palmer graduated from Union College with a physics degree, taught science in Poughkeepsie and Albany, and was drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>At the Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland, Palmer calibrated radiation detection devices using different-sized polyethylene spheres to slow neutrons enough for an electronic counter, to inform how people should be protected.</p>
<p>Palmer has calibrated himself to schools — with high and low wealth or large and small size — and become known as a reformer. He says that, at 64, he still likes the education field because he gets to figure out ways to motivate people and orient them in a common direction.</p>
<p>Palmer has been a consultant in education since 2007, after two years as Troy City School District’s interim superintendent. In July, Palmer will take an interim post at BKW.</p>
<p>Palmer was appointed to the job at Monday’s school board meeting. He will be in a transition period this month, stepping into the interim role formally in July. The one-year contract is for $800 a day. Vasilios Lefkaditis, president of the board, estimated the total cost would be $300 less than the salary and benefits for Superintendent Paul Dorward had been for a year; Dorward’s annual salary was $127,000.</p>
<p>For now, Dorward and Palmer have met to discuss the transition, while Dorward moves on to another district, and share responsibilities for reference calls for a new elementary school principal. Regina Yeo, hired in November as an elementary school principal for BKW, will be superintendent at another school starting in July. Palmer said applications to replace resigning teachers are now being sorted.</p>
<p>Over the next week, Palmer said, he will meet with BKW administrators, and he is especially interested in understanding the projections of fund balance and reserves with Business Official David Hodgkinson.</p>
<p>“He feels we’re in pretty good shape, and Dr. Dorward said the same thing,” said Palmer.</p>
<p>Voters recently passed a budget with no increase in the tax levy and a 5.95-percent spending increase. With around 40 percent of the BKW budget coming from state aid, Palmer said the district is among the more vulnerable to a 2-percent state-set levy cap having a smaller tax base to cover any decreases to aid in recent years.</p>
<p>“I think we might be better off with some kind of state-level property tax…the wealth is shared more evenly, so the 2-percent cap hits everybody the same way,” said Palmer.</p>
<p>Palmer has been summoned from retirement to be an interim superintendent before. He worked in Troy, where he said the school board directed him to oversee changes to the administrative staff, their roles and weight in the school, at a time when positions were being filled.</p>
<p>“I think it’ll probably be a similar kind of pattern here, especially with new board members…They’ll develop a plan to achieve goals, then I’ll be in a better position to be an enhancer,” Palmer said, pointing to later in the summer when he would have a clearer vision of what he will do.</p>
<p>Three board members will be new in July. Joan Adriance, voted into a three-year term this May, will be the only new board member with a past term.</p>
<p>Reviewing the BKW data, Palmer named two areas that are in need of improvement: math scores and special-education classification.</p>
<p>“It looks, on paper right now, that Berne-Knox-Westerlo has more kids in special ed. than they should,” said Palmer.</p>
<p>The state’s 2011-12 report card has the BKW special education classification rate at 14.1 percent, while the rate for all schools in the state is 12.8 and for similar districts is 12.1 percent. Over-classification can mean academics suffer, Palmer said.</p>
<p>With a new special-education director, Susan Casper, hired last year, classifications have gone down — progress Palmer said he would monitor.</p>
<p>“I approached the job in Troy as though I wasn’t just a caretaker but as though I was a specialist who was in charge,” Palmer said, describing how, with any plan to improve instruction, the staff needs to believe it can improve results, not take orders.</p>
<p>Candidates for school board unanimously said the tenor of board meetings needs improvement. Palmer said he is aware of this reputation.</p>
<p>“Go out and make the school district the best district it can be, and those issues will fall by the wayside,” said Palmer.</p>
<p>He spoke optimistically of the people he has met who want to support the district.</p>
<p>Palmer, who lives in Latham, said he plans outings in the community, at a church dinner and town board meetings.</p>
<p>When growing up in Gouverneur in northern New York, Palmer worked after-school on a three-generation family farm, with vegetables growing in front of the house, and a tree nursery in the back. He learned to drive a tractor when he was 11 and worked in a lead mine at 18.</p>
<p>Palmer has completed graduate studies at State University of New York at New Paltz for physics education and administration.</p>
<p>He has worked as an administrator at Spackenkill High School in Poughkeepsie, Averill Park, City School District of New Rochelle, and City School District of Albany. For the New York State School Boards Association, Palmer worked as director of its management and consulting services, and he was marketing vice president for Energy Education Inc.</p>
<p>Painting a sky with clouds in watercolor, a blob of paint, a mistake, is a mess, Palmer said. He has learned, in a book about watercolor technique, to treat such a blob as a “happy accident.”</p>
<p>“When I found out, instead of by-the-book physics person, you look for those happy-accident opportunities,” he said of what it reflects on his leadership roles.</p>
<p>He said he reads constantly, plays guitar, and spends a lot of time riding his bike or in a gym. On a golf course, he says, he walks to all the holes, with his bag over his shoulder.</p>
<p>“Nobody else does it, but I do anyways,” said Palmer.</p>
<p> </p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">June 16, 2013</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/lonnie-palmer" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lonnie Palmer</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:39:23 +0000editor137 at http://www.altamontenterprise.com